Early warning systems for more effective student counselling in higher education: Evidence from a Dutch field experiment

Simone Plak; Ilja Cornelisz; Martijn Meeter; Chris van Klaveren

doi:10.1111/hequ.12298

Early warning systems for more effective student counselling in higher education: Evidence from a Dutch field experiment

Simone Plak^*, Ilja Cornelisz, Martijn Meeter, Chris van Klaveren

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Early Warning Systems (EWS) in higher education accommodate student counsellors by identifying at-risk students and allow them to intervene in a timely manner to prevent student dropout. This study evaluates an EWS that shares student-specific risk information with student counsellors, which was implemented at a large Dutch university. A randomised field experiment was conducted to estimate the effect of EWS-assisted counselling on first-year student dropout and academic performance. The results show that the EWS accurately predicts at-risk students. Yet, EWSassisted counselling did not reduce dropout, nor improved academic performance. Solving the underlying problem of poor academic performance might require additional actionable feedback and recommended counselling practices.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	131-152
Number of pages	22
Journal	Higher Education Quarterly
Volume	76
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12298
Publication status	Published - Jan 2022

Access to Document

10.1111/hequ.12298Licence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{c5138440c8984859b8b8c0d724ecebb8,

title = "Early warning systems for more effective student counselling in higher education: Evidence from a Dutch field experiment",

abstract = "Early Warning Systems (EWS) in higher education accommodate student counsellors by identifying at-risk students and allow them to intervene in a timely manner to prevent student dropout. This study evaluates an EWS that shares student-specific risk information with student counsellors, which was implemented at a large Dutch university. A randomised field experiment was conducted to estimate the effect of EWS-assisted counselling on first-year student dropout and academic performance. The results show that the EWS accurately predicts at-risk students. Yet, EWSassisted counselling did not reduce dropout, nor improved academic performance. Solving the underlying problem of poor academic performance might require additional actionable feedback and recommended counselling practices.",

author = "Simone Plak and Ilja Cornelisz and Martijn Meeter and {van Klaveren}, Chris",

note = "Funding Information: We thank Theo Bakker of Student Affairs at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam for capacitating the research design, for facilitating access to the EWS dashboard and university register data, and for overall support throughout the research process. We thank Sytze van den Essenburg for sharing the results of the follow-up interviews held with student counsellors. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 The Authors. Higher Education Quarterly published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd",

year = "2022",

month = jan,

doi = "10.1111/hequ.12298",

language = "English",

volume = "76",

pages = "131--152",

journal = "Higher Education Quarterly",

issn = "0951-5224",

publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Early warning systems for more effective student counselling in higher education

T2 - Evidence from a Dutch field experiment

AU - Plak, Simone

AU - Cornelisz, Ilja

AU - Meeter, Martijn

AU - van Klaveren, Chris

N1 - Funding Information: We thank Theo Bakker of Student Affairs at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam for capacitating the research design, for facilitating access to the EWS dashboard and university register data, and for overall support throughout the research process. We thank Sytze van den Essenburg for sharing the results of the follow-up interviews held with student counsellors. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Authors. Higher Education Quarterly published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

PY - 2022/1

Y1 - 2022/1

N2 - Early Warning Systems (EWS) in higher education accommodate student counsellors by identifying at-risk students and allow them to intervene in a timely manner to prevent student dropout. This study evaluates an EWS that shares student-specific risk information with student counsellors, which was implemented at a large Dutch university. A randomised field experiment was conducted to estimate the effect of EWS-assisted counselling on first-year student dropout and academic performance. The results show that the EWS accurately predicts at-risk students. Yet, EWSassisted counselling did not reduce dropout, nor improved academic performance. Solving the underlying problem of poor academic performance might require additional actionable feedback and recommended counselling practices.

AB - Early Warning Systems (EWS) in higher education accommodate student counsellors by identifying at-risk students and allow them to intervene in a timely manner to prevent student dropout. This study evaluates an EWS that shares student-specific risk information with student counsellors, which was implemented at a large Dutch university. A randomised field experiment was conducted to estimate the effect of EWS-assisted counselling on first-year student dropout and academic performance. The results show that the EWS accurately predicts at-risk students. Yet, EWSassisted counselling did not reduce dropout, nor improved academic performance. Solving the underlying problem of poor academic performance might require additional actionable feedback and recommended counselling practices.

U2 - 10.1111/hequ.12298

DO - 10.1111/hequ.12298

M3 - Article

SN - 0951-5224

VL - 76

SP - 131

EP - 152

JO - Higher Education Quarterly

JF - Higher Education Quarterly

IS - 1

ER -